Historic Dawson City Corner Building in Black and White Architecture

I’ve always been drawn to buildings that outlive their own stories, and Harrington’s Store in Dawson City is one of those places that still stands with a kind of quiet stubbornness. When I found it on a calm northern day, the light was soft enough that every board, every window frame, every weathered edge seemed to carry its own memory. Even without knowing its name, you can feel that this building has seen more chapters than it lets on.

Harrington’s Store was built in 1902, in the years just after the Klondike Gold Rush had turned this patch of the Yukon into one of the busiest places on the continent. The rush had cooled, but Dawson was still trying to settle into something more permanent. William A. Harrington ran his general store on the ground floor while living upstairs, and that mix of practicality and ambition shaped the entire building. The cut-corner entrance, the wide storefront windows, the distinctive oriel window perched above the doors—these features weren’t ornamental; they were designed for a bustling frontier town trying to look established.

Standing there with my camera, what struck me most wasn’t nostalgia but endurance. This isn’t a dramatic structure—it’s not a palace, a courthouse, or a grand hotel—but it holds its own. The wood siding still shows the grain of Yukon weather. The symmetry still holds tight. And the oriel window, with its lace curtains and square geometry, still draws your eye the way it must have drawn customers more than a century ago.

I chose to photograph it in black and white because that treatment reveals the essence of the place. Color can soften or distract. Monochrome cuts right to the structure, letting the sky, textures, and lines speak plainly. With that heavy northern cloud cover drifting above town, the contrast just felt right—quiet, steady, and rooted in the history of Dawson itself.

What I love most about this image is how timeless it feels. It’s unmistakably Canadian, unmistakably Yukon, unmistakably a relic of a frontier past that shaped communities all across the North. When printed large, the piece brings a strong, grounded presence into a room. It works beautifully in studies, reading spaces, cabins, modern interiors—anywhere someone appreciates real places and the history that stays written into the walls.

Like everything I create, this is real photography. No staging, no shortcuts—just me, the building, the weather, and the patience to let the moment settle before pressing the shutter. Harrington’s Store has earned its place in Dawson City’s story, and I wanted to honour that in a way that stays true to the building itself.

If you enjoy artwork with real roots—pieces tied to Canada’s northern history, Yukon heritage architecture, and the quiet strength of old frontier towns—this photograph fits right into that world. It’s the kind of image I love making: real places, real stories, and buildings like this one in Dawson that have weathered more winters than any of us ever will.

© Dan Kosmayer, 2024